To Access This Blog's Index, Please Scroll Down To the Fifth Paragraph From the End of This Post! For Those of You Who May Be In a Hurry to Access it, Here it is now: Neil Birch's Blog Index.

Dear Readers of this Blog, please note that Google advertisements may appear in this blog post or to the right of my posts. They were not solicited by me and I do not profit from them. I did request particularly that Google not place them within scriptures which I often use in my blog posts. It appears they have honored that request of mine. Thank you Google! (I hope they continue to honor my request!)

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TODAY'S THEME

The Birth of Jesus -By Carl Heinrich Bloch

(Wednesday, December 26, 2012) For some reason when I published this blog post very early Christmas morning I didn't stop to realize that not many of my regular blog viewers view it the day a new post is published. Actually the higher percentage of viewers view it on the Saturday and Sunday following the Tuesday it is always published.

For that reason I have decided to urge those of you who have logged onto this post a number of days after it was published, to consider this very touching video as something to effectively assist you in your efforts to remember the true meaning of Christmas longer than perhaps you usually do!

Actually I wish the true meaning of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ would burn brightly in our lives throughout each entire year! Our gratitude for His birth and life mission ought to guide us toward righteousness always!

That is my hope for each of us and perhaps the delightful words the children speak in this extra special You Tube Video will be just the thing to help each of us accomplish that!

Because this video was so delightfully put together, it isn't necessary for me to add anything else to this very special Christmas post: I'm sure it will turn out to be one of my favorites, perhaps it may be one of your's too!

This website is not owned by or affiliated with the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position of the Church.

I deeply appreciate your readership and hope you found very beneficial, that which was presented to you in this blog post.

If you have any questions about what you have read or viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and or its teachings, please e-mail me. I'm Neil and my e-mail address is: jneilmelva@gmail.com. If you contact me I'll get back to you just as soon as possible.I invite you to let your friends and relatives know about this blog if you think they would be interested. Please be advised that I also have an additional blog. It is in Spanish:Its content is translated from the English in this blog.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

To Access This Blog's Index, Please Scroll Down To the Fifth Paragraph From the End of This Post! For Those of You Who May Be In a Hurry to Access it, Here it is now: Neil Birch's Blog Index.

Dear Readers of this Blog, please note that Google advertisements may appear in this blog post or to the right of my posts. They were not solicited by me and I do not profit from them. I did request particularly that Google not place them within scriptures which I often use in my blog posts. It appears they have honored that request of mine. Thank you Google! (I hope they continue to honor my request!)

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TODAY'S THEME

The Birth of Jesus, -by Carl Heinrich Bloch

With Christmas Day arriving just one week from the day on which I'm publishing this Blog Post, I continue to assist each of us, as I attempted to begin doing in Last Week's Post; to feel the full significance of Christmas as the very beginning of our Savior Jesus Christ's role in bringing about personally, while living here on Planet Earth, the possibility of our earning eternal salvation.

At Christmas time we usually focus directly on the event pictured above by the great artist, Carl Heinrich Bloch, and also on other closely related events which took place just before and just after the birth of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

In today's post I invite each of you to continue with me once again this week, to "get the Big Picture" of the role, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ has played and will continue playing in life's panorama here on Planet Earth, in preparing the way so that all human beings who have ever, or until the time of His Second Coming at the onset of the Millennium, show how each of us have chosen to use the free agency given us by Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ!

I have chosen to do this by republishing my past blog post entitled: A Letter to My Granddaughter, JoJo.

MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2009

A Letter to My Granddaughter, JoJo

To Access This Blog's Index, Please Scroll Down To the Fifth Paragraph From the End of This Post!

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﻿A SPECIAL EASTER SEASON POST

Dear Blog Readers, I'm writing this post as a blog post letter to a dear twelve year old granddaughter of mine.

DearJoJo,

You had told me in an e-mail several weeks ago that you were studying ancient Israel and similar matters in your social studies class at school. I wrote telling you that I'd like to tell you a special story about Israel. But then as you may recall, I wrote suggesting that you may not be interested in what I was planning to write. But then, when you e-mailed me telling me you really wanted me to write it, I decided to write it. Here it is:

_____________

There is Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Jacob's other name is Israel, a Hebrew language word which means: "One who prevails with God." You may know the meaning of the word, prevail. In case you don't, it means, in this case, Israel is a person (or a people) who please God.

Actually, my story begins with Jacob's grandfather, Abraham who is called, as we learn in the Old Testament: Father of the Faithful. Abraham's father, Terah was not a very righteous man, but Abraham believed strongly in God and learned to serve Him. He becamethe very first leader and father of the Nation of Israel.

Abraham's wife, Sarah didn't have a baby until they were both very old. She was so old (about 100) that when Abraham told her that God had told him she was going to have a baby she laughed. She had a very hard time believing that!

The baby boy was born and Sarah and Abraham were both very glad.

Their son, Isaac, became very righteous as he grew up, as was Isaac's son, Jacob - called also, Israel. He had twelve sons. Jacob's one son that we all perhaps remember the most is Joseph Who was sold into Egypt. You may have seen the musical that tells about him and his family: "Joseph and the AmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat."

Joseph, son of Jacob, is my very favorite person from the Old Testament. Here is a picture showing his jealous brothers selling him as a slave into Egypt when he was a teenager. I think you know his story.

Painting: Ted Henninger

JOSEPH IS SOLD INTO EGYPT BY HIS BROTHERS

Here is a second picture of Joseph, son of Jacob (Israel). After Joseph, as a grown man, had saved his father and all of his family from starvation as the second in command in Egypt just under Pharaoh, King of Egypt, Jacob gave him a father's blessing.

Painting: Harry Anderson

JACOB (ISRAEL) BLESSING JOSEPH

Now that you have been given an overview of the family of Israel, I will tell you of something exceedingly difficult that Father Abraham was asked to do by Heavenly Father that Abraham consented to do. Abraham's showing that he would actually do this terribly difficult thing, caused Heavenly Father to love him very much. I'll give you the details of that a little later.

In the meantime,JoJo, I need to prepare you by explaining something that Abraham and his people did that is not done in our day, at least, not in the USA, that I know of.

Ever Since Adam and Eve's time, Heavenly Father had commanded His children here on earth to make animal sacrifices which were very symbolic of something important that was to happen in the future.

Do you know what the word, symbolic means? You could look it up in your dictionary, but let me just say that the ordinance ofanimal sacrifice about which I'll be telling you, was somewhatsimilar to, or can remind us of, something exceedingly important which would happen in the middle of the world's history, which would tremendously effect all people who would ever live on the earth: the sacrifice of the Son of God.

So, the practice of animal sacrifice was given by God through His prophets to prepare the minds and hearts of people who believed in him, like Abraham, Isaac and Joseph, for the coming of the day, in the distant future, when God's perfectly righteous Only Son, who would be named, Jesus Christ, would give up his life voluntarily to pay the price for our sins so we wouldn't have to suffer for them ourselves if we fully accept His sacrifice for us by living the way He and His prophets teach us to live.

His sacrifice would also bring about the eventual resurrection of everyone who has ever lived on the earth!

This next picture is a drawing showing an Israelite priest, (maybe during the prophet, Moses' time), offering an animal(usually it was a lamb)sacrifice to remind his people of the sacrifice of the Son of God which was to be a very great blessing to all of us, especially as we live according to God's commandments!

Painting: Unknown Artist

JoJo, in case you can't read the small writing at the bottom of the sacrificial alter picture, it says: Altar of Burnt Offerings.

Abraham had offered burnt animal offerings throughout his life, but on one very challenging occasion, God told Abraham, by the means of His Holy Spirit or by an angel, the following:

Genesis 22: 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

JoJo, I want you to notice in that scripture the words, "thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest." Those words of Heavenly Father to Abraham, just now made me weep silently for Abraham. What was asked of Abraham would be so very difficult, even for obedient Abraham, Father of the Faithful. Abraham was to: offer him (Isaac, Abraham and Sarah's only son) in Moriah as a burnt offering !

We should remember that both Abraham and Sarah were close to one hundred years of age when Isaac was born. How could they both allow him to be killed like a sacrificial lamb after waiting so long for him to be born?

And how could Father Abraham be the one to offer such a sacrifice? Let's remember, Abraham was the Father of the Faithful. Faithful to whom? To God our Heavenly Father!

Father Abraham obeyed. He loved God. He took his son, Isaac with him to the exact place where God had commanded him to go to sacrifice him. Abraham trusted in God but oh how difficult it must have been for The Father of the Faithful that day. He so loved God, but he so much loved his and Sarah's only son too!

Painting: Del Parson

Abraham and Isaac With a Load of Wood for the Sacrifice

Here is what is written in Genesis 22: 5 -13

5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram (a male sheep) caught in a thicket (a thickly branched bunch of small trees) by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.(emphasis and clarification added)

Now please read and feelglad for these words of the Lord found in Genesis 22:15-18

15 ¶ And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

So, Abraham the Father of the Faithful who was the leader of the ancient nation of Israel, remained faithful. He passed the test the Lord gave him and was promised great blessings, which we learn from the holy scriptures, were given him!

JoJo, you might ask, why would Heavenly Father want to have Abraham go through such a great test? I suggest that one reason why, is that He wanted Abraham to fully understand how difficult it would be for Himself, Heavenly Father, when He would be going through a similar trial, the future sacrifice ofHis Only Mortal Son.

We humans are all sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, but He is the father of our spirit bodies in our previous life and He gave us the great privilege of coming in our spirit bodies prepared by Him and our Heavenly mother, into mortal bodies prepared for us by our parents here on earth. However, in the case of Jesus, Heavenly Father was not only the father of Jesus' spirit, but also was the father of Jesus' mortal body.

Jesus was Heavenly Father's only mortal son. This is how Jesus' apostle, John referred to this great truth:

John 3:16 ¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (emphasis added.)

Here is the meaning of the word, begotten, JoJo,according to the dictionary: "generated by procreation" (came by birth as all babies come); "naturally begotten child"; and in Jesus' case, God, (Our Heavenly Father) is His father.)

Now in this post, we will shift from Abraham's Isaac to that otherOnly Son whose actual Father, our Heavenly Father, knew was to be sacrificed to pay for the sins of all people who have ever lived on the earth. As you will soon see from several of the pictures in this next section, Heavenly Father was not, as was Abraham, to bespared from allowing His Only Son, Jesus Christ to be sacrificed.

A Prayer:Our Dear Heavenly Father, I, J. Neil Birch, and whomsoever of the readers of this blog post desire to join with me in this prayer (hopefully this will include my dear granddaughter, JoJo), we thank Thee from the bottoms of our hearts for the supreme sacrifice You allowed to be made, of your only mortal son, Jesus Christ, so that He could fully be our Savior and Redeemer.

We are grateful for that which He (your Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ) did to allow us to be forgiven of all our sins (inasmuch as we truly believe in You and in Your son, Jesus and strive with all our hearts to keep all of Your commandments), that we will be blessed in this life and eventually be blessed with Eternal Life.

We pray for all of this in the Sacred and Holy Name of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. AMEN!

Abraham, you were a great man. You were willing to do that which Heavenly Father asked you to do! We love and honor you for the great example of faithfulness you set for us! We have our own trials to pass through, but are glad they are not as difficult to face as your great trial.

JoJo, as you know, at this Easter Season the Christian World celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Only actual mortalSon of Heavenly Father to ever live on the earth. You may not have known this, but Jesus, through His mortal mother, Mary, is descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). Jesus, therefore, is an Israelite.

One other thing that might be interesting to you. It appears that the place, Mount Moriah, where Abraham was told by God to go to sacrifice his son, Isaac, is in the same area, where is located:Gethsemane, where the Son of God, Jesus Christ, suffered for our sins and Golgotha, where He died on the cross. These were in the Land (or District) of Moriah. Also, Mount Moriah is where Solomon's Temple (God's House) was located.

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Dear JoJo, in this second part of this post I'm going to give you and all of the other viewers of this special Easter version of my blog which is my letter to you, by the use of some special pictures, an Overview of the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ including some in which His great sacrifice and resurrection are shown.

I'm so grateful for these particularly great events which took place in the history of this world! (I'm also grateful for the wonderful artists that created these paintings and for their having been made available to us through lds.org.) I'll also use four more pictures in a final section of this blog which will follow this one I'm now starting.

JoJo,I hope you enjoyed those pictures and the message they give us. Here is Part 3 of this letter to you.

After the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ according to His and Heavenly Father's divine plan, He visited for a number of days in Ancient Central America where an Israelitish people had been living since coming there under the guidance of Heavenly Father about 600 years before Jesus' birth in Jerusalem.

They were in large measure, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through Jacob's son, Joseph. Joseph had been promised by the Lord, possibly in the blessing given him by his father Jacob in the picture shown in the first portion of this letter to you, that there would be members of his posterity (his descendants, if that is a better word for you) on the earth all the way to the Second Coming of Messiah (Jesus Christ).

Much of the Nephite Nation had been destroyed by a great cataclysm of nature that occured just before the resurrected Jesus visited them. The more righteous of that nation had been saved from that tremendous destruction, which had come by earthquakes, whirlwinds, floods and fire.

After having become aware of all the destruction which killed many relatives of theirs, these Israelites were emotionally and spiritually ready (without fully realizing it) for the great spiritual experiences they were soon to have with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The righteous prophets among this Israelitish people had kept good records which eventually were edited to provide what is in the Book of Mormon, which stands right alongside the New Testament as Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

There is an entire, large sub-book in the Book of Mormon entitledThird Nephi which describes the experiences of these Nephites at the time of His several visits to them. I have chosen just four pictures of events that took place then to help you understand something of what Jesus Christ did there in ancient Central America not long after His resurrection. Jesus told the people there, after He began visiting with them, that they had much more faith than the people He grew up and taught among (in Palestine).

Painting: John Scott

Jesus Teaches the Nephites

When Jesus first began His visit to these descendants of Joseph(who was sold into Egypt) He allowed each one of the about 2,000 people gathered there to touch the wounds that were still in His hands, side and feet. That allowed them to know that He had been crucified (Sacrificed)as all of their prophets had been telling them and their ancestors for 600 years that he would be, in order to pay for their and all mankind's sins.

These Nephites learned first hand about His having a resurrected body, realizing that He had come to America both from Jerusalem and at another time, from Heaven where He had visited with His Father, in a resurrected body that helped Him do miraculous things. (Jesus didn't need an airplane to get there.) Theyhad witnessed Him descending out of the sky when they first saw Him.

Painting: Gary KappJesus Heals the Sick

Painting: Del ParsonAngels Join Jesus and Nephite Children

Jesus had a number of special meetings in Ancient Central America where he blessed the children. One miracle that happened several times during His visits there, was that even little babies who hadn't yet learned to talk were able to speak marvelous things under the influence of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

Painting: Robert T. Barrett

Jesus Asks For Records

Jesus asked the Nephites for some of their own records which He knew they had temporarily misplaced. They then found them for Him and then included them with their other records.

Jesus also shared with them some records of a prophet named Malachi which are in our Old Testament, but hadn't been included with the records which their ancestors, 600 years earlier had brought with them from Jerusalem to America. (because Malachi's record had been written after their departure.) Jesus knew they needed the teachings found in that book.

In just a few short words, JoJoI want you to know that this Grandpa of yours really knows that Jesus is your and my Savior and the Savior of all of our loved-ones and everyone else who has lived on this earth or will have lived on it, who will live the way He teaches us all to live.

I'm grateful to Him for all the wonderful people that are in my family. That includes your Mom and Sister. I'm glad you have such a good Dad too. Also, I especially appreciate the special blessing I have of being a member of Jesus's church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

__________________

HAPPY EASTER,To my dear Granddaughter, JoJo and also to all of you others who may have viewed this post!

Grandpa Birch (J. Neil Birch)

If you have just viewed this post, "A Letter to My Granddaughter, JoJo, in connection with having originally logged into my (NeilBirch's) Post 42d, a Spiritual Bridge Between Christmas (2010) and Easter (2011), Please enjoy the Video featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah!

This website is not owned by or affiliated with the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position of the Church.

I deeply appreciate your readership and hope you found very beneficial, that which was presented to you in this blog post.

If you have any questions about what you have read or viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and or its teachings, please e-mail me. I'm Neil and my e-mail address is: jneilmelva@gmail.com. If you contact me I'll get back to you just as soon as possible.I invite you to let your friends and relatives know about this blog if you think they would be interested. Please be advised that I also have an additional blog. It is in Spanish:Its content is translated from the English in this blog.

To Access This Blog's Index, Please Scroll Down To the Fifth Paragraph From the End of This Post! For Those of You Who May Be In a Hurry to Access it, Here it is now: Neil Birch's Blog Index.

Dear Readers of this Blog, please note that Google advertisements may appear in this blog post. They were not solicited by me and I do not profit from them. I did request particularly that Google not place them within scriptures which I often use in my blog posts. It appears they have honored that request of mine. Thank you Google! (I hope they continue to honor my request!)

DISCLAIMERThis website is not owned by or affiliated with the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position of the Church.____________

If you have any questions about what you have read or viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and or its teachings, please e-mail me. I'm Neil and my e-mail address is: jneilmelva@gmail.com. If you contact me I'll get back to you just as soon as possible.I invite you to let your friends and relatives know about this blog if you think they would be interested. Please be advised that I also have an additional blog. It is in Spanish:Its content is translated from the English in this blog.

To Access This Blog's Index, Please Scroll Down To the Fifth Paragraph From the End of This Post! For Those of You Who May Be In a Hurry to Access it, Here it is now: Neil Birch's Blog Index.

Dear Readers of this Blog, please note that Google advertisements may appear in this blog post. They were not solicited by me and I do not profit from them. I did request particularly that Google not place them within scriptures which I often use in my blog posts. It appears they have honored that request of mine. Thank you Google! (I hope they continue to honor my request!)

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TODAY'S THEME

The Conversion of Alma (and the Four Sons of King Mosiah) -by Gary Kapp

In my just previous blog post I told you about the amazing turn-about in the lives of the four sons of King Mosiah, (shown above), when an Angel of the Lord spoke directly to their friend and fellow rebel, Alma, the son of the High Priest of the Church of Jesus Christ in their land in Ancient America. The angel's message was taken strongly to heart by Alma and also by each of the four brothers.

That amazing and very positive turn-about (repentance) in their own lives allowed these four brothers, as we learned in last week's post, to bring to a state of conversion, with the Lord's direct guidance, a huge number of Lamanites, who had been, for the most part, bitter enemies of their people, the Nephites, which, of course, then included these four sons of King Mosiah, (who later become their dear friends and teachers!)

Those Lamanite converts, afterwards, thanks to the inspired teachings of those four sons of King Mosiah of the Nephites, became amazingly devoted to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and became convinced that their knowledge of His eventual birth, ministry in Palestine, and his death and resurrection, was of great worth to them; much more so than the worldly possessions and power they had previously devoted themselves, as a people, to attaining. The Lord truly led those four sons of the king, in a marvelous way!

Repentance, both by young Alma and his four close friends and also by the huge number of Lamanites the four brothers were instrumental in the hands of the Lord in leading to become His dedicated servants; is something that each of us present day mortals need to make a vital part of our own lives!

Here is a Mormon Message Video which will help each of us learn some key things about repentance and will possibly motivate us to more fully repent of our wrong doings and sins and to teach our children to do so likewise.

I will now address the challenge each of us parents face in helping our own children to make true repentance a vital part of their lives. We should have to wonder how those four sons of King Mosiah who were also the grandsons of the King's own highly devout father, King Benjamin,

(who preceded him (Mosiah) as king in the Kingdom of Zarahemla whose final address to his people was filled with faith strengthening teachings and ended with his assisting all in his kingdom, who were old enough to do so; to pledge themselves to become faithful servants of our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ whom they knew was coming to earth and eventually would appear to their descendants in their promised land;)

. . .could have ever become rebellious regarding the Faith of their Fathers!

We too may have similar concerns regarding our children whom we are attempting to raise as righteous Latter-day Saints, or righteous members of whatever church some of you may belong to.

Mormon Abridging The Plates -by Tom Lovell

Here are the words of the Prophet Mormon, which are found in the Book of Mormon,Another Testament of Jesus Christ, regarding those challenges King Mosiah's people should have each been facing regarding their children who were too young at the time his father, King Benjamin, in his final address as king; to make the solemn covenants of obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that their parents and older siblings had made!

King Benjamin's Final Address . -by Gary Kapp

Mosiah 26: 1 NOW it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.

2 They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ.

3 And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened.

4 And they would not be baptized; neither would they join the church. And they were a separate people as to their faith, and remained so ever after, even in their carnal and sinful state; for they would not call upon the Lord their God.

5 And now in the reign of Mosiah they were not half so numerous as the people of God; but because of the dissensions among the brethren they became more numerous.

6 For it came to pass that they did deceive many with their flattering words, who were in the church, and did cause them to commit many sins; therefore it became expedient that those who committed sin, that were in the church, should be admonished by the church.

We must assume that the four sons of King Mosiah were very young or even not yet born, at the time their paternal grandfather, King Benjamin gave his farewell address and then directed his representatives to go among all of his people who had gathered together from all over his land; to witness the covenants that they each freely and willingly were making.

Thus, we have a plausible explanation as to why the four sons of King Mosiah were rebellious; they were either too young to have made the solemn covenants to wholeheartedly serve God that their parents and older siblings had made, or perhaps they had not yet been born. Then additionally, perhaps, as they grew up, their parents, the king and his wife, their mother, were too busy to pay sufficient attention to their sons' spiritual insufficiency.

Do we as parents sometimes get to be too busy and neglect our children's special needs?

I brought this subject into this blog post to help us to realize that each of us modern day Latter-day Saints (including many of you who may later become such) are faced with the serious challenge of making sure our children are taught by us and by our church leaders and teachers in the ways of the Lord.

Perhaps King Mosiah was too wrapped up in the great challenges kings must constantly face; to find time to discover early enough that his four sons did not share his faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, who would be born to a woman named Mary, with our Father in Heaven as his actual father, and about whom it had been prophesied that after His atonement, crucifixion and resurrection He would appear to and teach His Gospel to a good number of their and other Nephites' - Lamanites' descendants in their sacred land located in the Americas.

Jesus Christ Visits The Americas, -by John Scott

My final question for each of us is: Are we paying sufficient attention to what our dear children believe in and whether or not they are sincerely living as Latter-day Saints (or whatever religion some of you are members of) should live, which will eventually lead them to Eternal Blessings?

P.S. Alma the Younger did not grow up around the sons of Mosiah, at least not in his early years. He was born in the Southern part of their land, at a considerable distance from the Kingdom of Zarahemla. His father, Alma, as their church leader, was perhaps too busy with the many serious problems he and his people were dealing with, to notice what was happening to his namesake son.

Thank you, each of you who may have involved yourselves in perusing this, hopefully helpful to you, blog post!

J. Neil Birch

____________

DISCLAIMERThis website is not owned by or affiliated with the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position of the Church.____________

If you have any questions about what you have read or viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and or its teachings, please e-mail me. I'm Neil and my e-mail address is: jneilmelva@gmail.com. If you contact me I'll get back to you just as soon as possible.I invite you to let your friends and relatives know about this blog if you think they would be interested. Please be advised that I also have an additional blog. It is in Spanish:Its content is translated from the English in this blog.

To Access This Blog's Index, Please Scroll Down To the Fifth Paragraph From the End of This Post! For Those of You Who May Be In a Hurry to Access it, Here it is now: Neil Birch's Blog Index.

Dear Readers of this Blog, please note that Google advertisements may appear in this blog post. They were not solicited by me and I do not profit from them. I did request particularly that Google not place them within scriptures which I often use in my blog posts. It appears they have honored that request of mine. Thank you Google!

****

TODAY'S THEME

The Conversion of Alma (and the Four Sons of King Mosiah) -by Gary Kapp

In much earlier blog posts I have dealt more with the conversion of Alma (the Younger), the son of Alma, the High Priest of God's Church among the Nephites, than with the four sons of King Mosiah. In this particular blog post, however, I focus on what great good came from this confrontation, by an angel of the Lord (shown in the painting above, in the lives of these four rebellious sons of their nation's king.

Perhaps in the cases of some of you viewers of this particular blog post there are some of you who perhaps feel you have gone astray from the teachings of your religion, whatever religion that may be, or perhaps you have gone astray from the teachings of your goodly parents. The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, provides you with an encouraging example how people who have gone astray can be led back by the Lord, Jesus Christ into a life of almost unbelievable great righteousness.

King Mosiah was reluctant to allow his four sons to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ among the Lamanite people because for the most part they were bitter enemies to them, the Nephites, and had killed many Nephites who had gone among them as his four sons were then intending to do.

Mosiah 28:6 And king Mosiah went and inquired of the Lord if he should let his sons go up among the Lamanites to preach the word.

7. And the Lord said unto Mosiah: Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites.

After clicking on the link below, please click on the word Listen which you will see at the top left side of your screen. Doing that will help you better enjoy your reading of this following Book of Mormon scripture:

Now Ammon and his brethren were faced with the challenge of what could be done to lead the Lamanites who had been converted to the Lord Jesus Christ (who was to come) and His ways, to a land of safety where they would be protected from the rest of the Lamanites who cared nothing about conversion to Christ's ways:

Now I briefly inform you viewers of this particular blog post of mine, of one particular event which took place among these Lamanite converts of the Lord through his servants Ammon and his four brethren and several close associates which demonstrates those Converted Lamanites' deep devotion to their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

This post has provided a broad view of what Ammon and his three brothers and a number of their friends accomplished on their very successful mission among the Lamanite. For those of you who would like to read more in detail what these missionaries accomplished on their very successful mission among the Lamanites I will provide you a number of scriptural references you may want to read from your personal copy of the Book of Mormon in which ever language your favorite copy of the Book of Mormon may be in:

Alma 17: 26-39; Alma 18:1-43; Alma 19:22-30; Alma 24:4-10

As you have experienced this blog post and may have even taken the time to read through the scriptures listed just above, from your own copy of the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, I'm caused to reflect back on something I have quoted a good number of times during the almost four and three quarters of a year I have been publishing this blog post of mine (this is a quote from several years ago!):

I have, at times, over the course of writing the approximately 225 posts in this my blog, quoted a statement made by a professor from a State University here in the State of Utah, in Utah County; in the United States of America concerning his own personal theory of how the Book of Mormon was written. (Of course, that PBS Video was viewed by millions of viewers. In reading the quote below which I have included in a number of my blog posts over the years, you can easily realize that this professor has actually never really read The Book of Mormon! I quote his statement from the text of that PBS Documentary, "The Mormons:")

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Professor Alex Caldiero

"I hear Joseph Smith's voice every time I read it (The Book of Mormon). He was a farmer. He was young. He was unlettered and he put this all together. So you have this rough hewn kind of text..." Alex Caldiero, poet and scholar, Utah Valley University, (Clarification Added) Now, dear readers of this particular Blog Post I have just published on Tuesday, November 20, 2012, I ask you a question you should find very easy to answer:

How in the world could a University Professor in the State of Utah or in any other university anywhere in this world, make such a huge blunder in saying what he did in the paragraph found just above under his photograph?

Dear Blog Readers, that which you have experienced in this, my Post 45w is true history. How could anyone, let alone a University professor honestly allege: "So you have this rough hewn kind of text" which according to him, it was produced (written and made up by) "a farmer. He was young. He was unlettered and he put this all together."

Once again, Professor Caldiero, Have you actually read the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ? Of course you haven't really read it! You surely haven't prayerfully studied it!

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If you have any questions about what you have read or viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and or its teachings, please e-mail me. I'm Neil and my e-mail address is: jneilmelva@gmail.com. If you contact me I'll get back to you just as soon as possible.I invite you to let your friends and relatives know about this blog if you think they would be interested. Please be advised that I also have an additional blog. It is in Spanish:Its content is translated from the English in this blog.

About Me

I was born Feb. 13, 1932 in Sacramento, CA. I grew up in Roseville, CA. While employed by the LDS Church my family and I lived in Utah, New Mexico, Montana, California, and Missouri. I retired from LDS Family Services in 1996. I owned my own adoption service business for 8 years thereafter. Then my wife, Melva and I served in Finland 2004 - 2006 as missionaries. I also served as a young missionary in Finland from 1952 - 1955. I have nine children (5 daughters, four sons), two step-children, (step-sons) and 27 grandchildren.

From One Mormon's Point of View

So much is being said nowadays on the Internet by people not of the Mormon faith, about the Mormons and their beliefs. Why not learn about us Mormons from one of us. I'm not an official of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, just one of the regular members, yet I'm one who supports Mormon beliefs because I have a testimony and have had much experience that has shown me the truth. I welcome your questions and even criticisms that you have heard, about which you would like the truth. If that is the case, you've come to the right guy.